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2 Posey 348

Tompkins v. Hart

Texas Commission of Appeals

Decided July 1, 1882

Texas Commission of Appeals · decided 1882-07-01

Opinion by Walker, J. Statement.— This was a suit brought by J. B. Hart against E. Y. Tompkins for damages resulting from the refusal of the defendant to carry out the contract between the parties, under which the plaintiff was employed for the period of one year by the defendant in the capacity of salesman in the business of the latter.

Decided 1882-07-01

¶1Opinion.— The damages claimed by the plaintiff were not required to be set out more specially than was done in the petition. Where the damages claimed result prima 'facie as a matter of legal inference from the facts stated, it is always sufficient. Sedgwick on Damages, sixth edition, page 731, says: “All legal damages must, whether the action be in contract or in tort, naturally result from the act or fault complained of; and although the law in certain cases permits the recovery of such damages as are physically secondary or consequential, yet they must in legal contemplation be also its proximate result. Where such result is necessary or is legally imported by the facts, the damages are general and need not be specially set forth in the pleadings; otherwise they must.” Burrell v. New York & Saginaw Solar Salt Co., 14 Mich., 38. Applying these principles to the facts alleged by plaintiff as constituting his cause of action, he was prima facie entitled to recover damages as the legal consequence of those facts. Field on Damages, sec. 340; also Nations v. Cudd, 22 Tex., 552; Meade v. Rutledge, 11 Tex., 53, 54.

¶2There being no error, the judgment is affirmed.

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